Defying Destiny
by Darkness' Forbidden Scribe
Summary: Itachi protected Naruto since he was a little boy. He never left Naruto unprotected. And he always had a back up plan for his back up plans. ItaNaru.


**Author's note**

**Hey! This is for Imperial Mint, my very lovely and patient Beta. Sorry about my other story. SORRY! Please be patient…*ducks when a chair gets thrown*…please? This is canon, but it goes on a completely different storyline after a while. It's when Sasuke hasn't left yet, and then there will be a time skip, that follows the manga.**

When I saw him in my ratty apartment, I was beyond scared. I was terrified. He was the one who was hunting me all this time, but at the same time, I was mesmerized. His eyes caught me in an intense gaze that he held, and I simply could not look away. Those eyes…I saw the same pain and loneliness that had plagued me all my life. But that was my folly, for when I looked into those eyes, I was trapped in the Tsukiyomi, the genjutsu the Mangekyou made famous.

I was in a world where it was black and white, like the moon on a starless sky but it was off. Everything was inverted. What was supposed to be white was black, and vice versa. As I looked around, I saw him standing in front of me. He was only a foot away, staring at me intently.

"Naruto-kun."

"Itachi-san," I replied. He raised one onyx eyebrow and said,

"First-name basis already, Naruto-kun?"

"Look who's talking, _Itachi_-san?" I said, fighting back a grin and not quite succeeding. My face settled for a smirk instead.

"Indeed," murmured Itachi, slowly taking a few steps towards me, "But, the question I would like to ask is completely different. Why aren't you afraid?"

"Are you asking me why I'm not afraid of you? Or why I'm not afraid of the fate that you would give to me?" He flinched slightly at the statement and took a step away from me,

"No...No that was never my intention. Never," He was shaking his head, moving slightly from left to right, his eyes never leaving mine, "Never would I harm you. It was all an act."

My bewildered expression must have given me away, because he raised an eyebrow again and stated,"You did not know this." I dumbly shook my head. He paced a bit before asking, "Did the Sandaime Hokage not inform you when the Kyuubi's chakra was released?"

"Inform me of what, exactly?"

"Of what exactly happened the night the Kyuubi was sealed into you." Now, I thought he was crazy. I mean, there was no other truth, right? The Fourth sealed him into me to save the villagers that night, and sacrificed himself in the process, "And no, Naruto, I am not insane, so would you please stop looking at me like that?" Damn it, why does my face have to be such an open book?

"First off, I wasn't looking at you as if you were insane, and second of all what am I supposed to be informed of? Ji-ji was a little busy with Orochimaru and Sasuke-teme to tell me anything."

"I'm not even going to start on if you were looking at me if I were insane or not. What you were supposed to be told was that-" Itachi stopped and looked to the distance, "I must leave. Your teacher is coming here to 'rescue' you once he felt my Mangekyou. Sasuke is coming here as well. I ask that you take care of my brother...For I feel I will soon be unable to." After he said that, he touched his lips to my forehead and whispered, "I leave you my secrets and a part of myself." With that he disappeared in a flurry of feathers. But I couldn't even move an inch, because from the moment he whispered those words, memories, emotions, reasons, jutsu and techniques flowed into my mind, separate, yet a part of my own consciousness. Almost like another entity. I'm embarrassed to say that I fainted from the flood of emotions and memories. In my dream, I saw Itachi's memories and his reasons for doing everything.

* * *

When I came to, I had a pounding headache, and I was in Konoha hospital. Unsurprisingly, I was in one of the plainest, lowest class room. I wonder what they'd do if they knew that I was the son of their beloved yellow flash. Oh, yes, I know my own father sealed the kyuubi no kitsune into my stomach, but I know he had a good reason. He didn't know the village wouldn't understand that I wasn't a monster. In hindsight, it was kind of naive for him to believe that, but he and I are father and son. We are alike in more ways than one.

I recalled the memories Itachi had passed to me. They were not pretty. He had killed all of the Uchiha, but he was under the orders of the Sandaime Hokage. The only one he could not kill was Sasuke, but what was worse? It was that the Uchiha clan died because of me.

They were truly corrupt, and were planning on killing me to release the Kyuubi. They thought that if Madara could control the Kyuubi, they could too. But their Sharingan were too weak. If they had succeeded, then the Kyuubi would not have been set free. He would have taken over my body and killed all who killed me, which would have been all of the powerful Uchiha clan members. Why he would do that, you ask? Because he considered me a son. He was not an unemotional blob of chakra; he had feelings too. And he was an eight tailed fox before the attack on Konoha. His ninth tail was gifted to him by ancient powers when his kits were killed by a man named Madara. Kyuubi knew who he was, and tried to resist Madara's mind control, but because of his grief and rage, Madara found the chink in his mental armor and used the Kyuubi to attack Konoha. Stupid bastard.

And so he was sealed into me by my father, and was left to the life I currently have. I was snapped out of my reverie when the door opened and I was greeted by the sight of Sasuke, Sakura, Tsunade and Kakashi.

"Hey, guys!" I greeted them with a grin on my face.

"God, gaki, don't scare me like that again. I thought you weren't going to wake up," growled Tsunade-baa-chan as she hit me on the head.

"Itai! That hurt! Is that anyway to treat a patient, Baa-chan?" I whined as I rubbed my head. The pounding got slightly worse, but it was still bearable. Better than stabbing a kunai through the hand.

"If said patient decided to black out from an encounter with Uchiha Itachi, then yes. It is," She said as she put a hand on my forehead.

"Why was he at your apartment, anyways, Dobe?" Sasuke snapped before anyone else could say a thing.

"It- I don't know," I said, lying through my teeth. I knew very well, but Sasuke doesn't need to know yet. He's not entirely stable, with the Sand incident and all. Still power hungry, still searching for a way to avenge his family by killing Itachi. It was senseless. But now I knew that I need to get a lot stronger of I want to keep my village safe from the Akatsuki. Unfortunately, Itachi didn't give me any info on the Akatsuki except for what they want, why, and who was the real controller. Again, Madara rears his ugly head. I laughed a mirthless laugh, which garnered a few strange looks from my friends.

"What's so funny, Naruto-baka?" asked Sakura.

"It's nothing Sakura-chan. By the way, is that ramen I smell?"

"Yeah, Gaki. Ichiraku's best, compliments to their favorite customer," said Tsunade as each of them pulled out a box from their magical physics-defying pockets.

"Compliments to me? Or to my purse?" I joked as I opened the first box. It was miso ramen, of course, and I picked up the chopsticks and split them neatly. And then I started devouring them with a vengeance. Ten minutes later, I put them all aside, and leaned back contentedly.

"So why are you guys here, anyways?" They were still dumbfounded by my mad ramen eating skills.

"Checking up on you, Naruto-baka. You were asleep for three days, practically in a coma. Tsunade could not tell whether there was any brain damage, and for some reason, Ino could not get into your head. When did you build shields for mental attacks?"

"Erm..." _'Okay Naruto, THINK!'_ "Jiraiya taught me! To shield myself from genjutsu!"

"Really? Funny, I didn't know he could do that..." Sakura mumbled as Tsunade place a chakra coated hand on my forehead, fixing me with a knowing look. She knew that it was the Kyuubi, but also knew that she could not say anything about it.

"Well, it seems as if nothing is wrong with you physically. I'd say you'll be discharged tomorrow, gaki," said Tsunade baa-chan as she withdrew her hand. What a relief. I gave a big, exaggerated yawn in response, and Baa-chan took the hint, "Come on now, let's get out of here. Gaki needs his sleep; a psychological attack is tiring. Bye Gaki." Finally. I'm alone. It's not that I don't love them, but they grate at my nerves sometimes. Now I have to go see Kyuubi. I closed my eyes, and within an instant, I was in my mindscape. It had changed considerably since the first time I was here; the sewers were replaced with an open field, and where the Kyuubi's cage once was, there was now a dense forest.

"Kyuubi! Come on out. We need to have a little chat…" I called as I materialized into my mind. There was rustling behind a bush before a young man gracefully shouldered his way out of the forest, coming to stand in front of me. He was wearing white robes that left his shoulders open with red embroidery on the undershirt, a pair of white trousers and was barefoot. He had fox ears where humans would have their ears, and blood red hair.

"You called, Naru?" Kyuubi said, flicking a piece of his hair out of his face, his ears twitching in agitation. He had also seen the memories, but I could tell he had seen something else… Now to drag the truth out of him.

"Of course I did. And you know exactly why. Where is Itachi?"


End file.
